Spooky lineages for your Tales of the Valiant Halloween games: the Broodling

It’s October, and in the USA, that means it’s time to get your spook on for Halloween. (And for stores to sell Christmas stuff.)

If you or a GM you love is planning a Halloween one-shot, we’ve got some special monstery lineages and heritages this month you can use to fill out your party.

Today is the broodling, a people with arachnid features and spidery origins. We are also showing off a heritage and background a typical broodling might have.

Let us know what you might do with this in the Kobold Discord server. There’s potential for them to appear in an official capacity in the future!

New Lineage: Broodling

Hatched in the wild places of the world, broodlings are humanoids with pronounced arachnid features. The fine bristle-like hair on their bodies acts as secondary sensory organs. Their skin ranges in color from brown, to molted white, to shades of black or red. Broodlings have two sets of eyes, a large pair and a smaller pair set above and to each side of their heads. The mouth of a broodling opens far wider than most humanoids and features prominent fangs.

The majority of broodlings believe they descend from a fallen spider god who gave life to them as a final benevolent act before the deity faded. Others maintain they are the product of a mad wizard’s failed experiment to cross ettercaps with humans. A vocal, but small community, suggest they are the natural ascension that all spider species will one day acheive. No matter the truth, broodlings dwell in isolated colonies in the deep forests where they construct buildings and structures from their webbing.

Most broodlings value community. Even those separated from the nest seek out and form bonds with creatures who treat them with respect and loyalty. The broodlings who seek the adventuring life often return to the nests of their hatching place to share their experiences and skills with the next generation.

BROODLING LINEAGE TRAITS

Your broodling character has certain hereditary traits dictated by their lineage.

Age. Broodlings mature rapidly, growing to adulthood within 3 years. Broodlings live to be 20 or 30 years old, though some live to reach their 50s.

Size. Your size is Medium. Broodlings have a slim build, standing around 5 feet tall and are rarely more than 100 pounds. 

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet and you have a climbing speed of 30 feet.

Hybrid Humanoid. Though your type is Humanoid, you have traits in common with Monstrosities. You have advantage on saves against effects that would cause you to become exhausted, and you have advantage on saves against being frightened.

Webwalker. You ignore movement restrictions caused by webbing.

Natural Weapons. You have powerful fangs that serve you as a natural weapon. You can use your natural weapon to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with it, the strike deals 1d6 + your STR or DEX modifier (choose which during character creation) piercing damage.

Spinneret. You can naturally produce strands of spider’s silk (see New Equipment below). In 1 minute, you can produce up to 50 feet of it. You can do this up to 5 times until you finish a long rest. Spider’s silk you create this way unravels and dissipates after 24 hours. If you engage in the crafting downtime, you can create permanent 50-foot lengths of spider’s silk.

New Heritage: Silk Strider

Silk strider heritage characters were raised in Broodling communities hidden in the canopies of ancient forests. The sprawling webs of a Broodling city, often called nests, can stretch for miles, connected by an intricate network of web bridges that archive the community’s history weaved into their very walls. Crossing these bridges can be harrowing for the uninitiated but for those who have lived in the Web Walk, crossing a web bridge is second nature. The bridges are multipurpose; and used for transportation, hunting, and education. The webs that connect their structures also feed and connect them to each other and their history.

According to the weavings in the Web Walk, the First Clutch was separated by a terrible storm that blew them all into the trees of a primordial forest. Mourning the loss of their siblings, each of them weaved a nest to house their own clutches, which became the foundations of the First Nests. These communities are continually expanding to accommodate their exponentially growing population and in hopes of one day reconnecting all of the First Nests.

Though these nests were primarily home to Broodlings, anyone is welcome within their webbed domain especially if they have goods to trade or knowledge about other nests to share. All they ask is that they respect their customs and bring no harm to the web that gives them life and the other spiders and spider-like creatures that call the nests their home. 

Web Dancer. You gain proficiency in the Acrobatics skill. Double your PB for any ability check you make to keep your balance while crossing a narrow path such as a strand of web, a tightrope, or a cliffside ledge.

Web Builder. You gain proficiency with construction tools. In addition, you can use spider’s silk as construction tools. Double your PB for any ability check using webbing, ropes, vines, or similar materials to fortify or build cover.

Languages. You know Common and one additional language of your choice. Typical silk striders speak Sylvan.

New Background: Spider Keeper

You were chosen to care for one or more of the spiders of the Ebon Clutch, a family of spiders whose lineage can be traced back to the First Nests and whose webs are used to build and maintain the Web Walks. This sacred duty required deep knowledge and understanding of these powerful and often volatile creatures to protect yourself and anyone foolish enough to get caught in their web.

Perhaps this was an honorable task inherited from your family lineage, a punishment for breaking your community’s laws, or a lifelong goal that took many years of study and practice for you to attain. Regardless of how you were chosen, the years you spent with the Ebon Clutch have given you insight into the behaviors of spiders and the ability to communicate with them.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from History, Animal Handling, Religion, or Survival.

Additional Proficiencies: You can speak the language of spiders. They understand you and can relay simple messages and concepts in return, as the speak with animals spell. In addition, you gain proficiency in either clothier tools or construction tools.

Equipment: 50 feet of spider’s silk a set of fine clothes, a vial of antitoxin, a coin purse containing 5 gp.

Adventuring Motivation

Spider keepers delight in the arachnid beauty of their charges, no matter how other societies views them. Think about the duties you’ve handled up until now in the familiar environs of the Ebon Clutch and what might cause your situation to change. When you begin your adventures, consider why your character decided to, or was forced to, venture into the wider world to face untold dangers.

Adventuring Motivation

New Equipment

Spider’s Silk. Spider Silk is a thick, lightweight webbing spun by giant spiders, broodlings, and other arachnid-adjacent creatures. It can stick to solid surfaces and hold up to 200 pounds. It has an AC 11 and 5 HP with vulnerability to fire damage and immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage.

The Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide and Monster Vault are on sale now in PDF and VTT format.
And don’t forget to Enter the Labyrinth!